Industrial minerals such as dolomite, gypsum, graphite, mica, apatite and limestone are found to occur in abundance within the country. Limestone is consumed by a large number of industries such as cement, chemical, fertilizers, aluminum, steel, ferro alloys, foundry, glass, paper, and sugar.

Limestone is a leader in the industrial minerals sector, producing an estimated 70% of the total value of industrial minerals. Based on geological exploration and prospecting, the total recoverable reserves of limestone in the country are estimated to be 75679 million tonnes with a life index of 254 years (Department of Mines 2001). Of this, 16% deposits fall under ‘proved’ category, 23% under ‘probable’ and 61% under ‘possible’ categories. Most of the limestone production in the country is undertaken by the private sector as the public sector share is limited to only 6%.

There has been a rapid growth in the production of limestone in the past three decades. Limestone production has gone up more than five times from 23.8 million tonnes in 1970-1971 to 127.9 million tonnes in 1999-2000 (TERI 2001). Out of the total limestone production, 69% comes from mines whose production capacity exceeds one million tonnes per annum. This increase in limestone production has met the increasing demands of the country’s cement industry which is the largest consumer of limestone.

India has the world’s fourth largest cement industry and is entirely self-sufficient in meeting its cement demand. The total installed capacity of the country’s cement industry is over eighty million tonnes per year (World Cement 1996). Most of the capacity (about 88%), is owned by the private sector, with the public sector accounting for only about 9.5 Mt/yr of production capacity (Global Cement Report 1996). Since the liberalization of the country’s economy began in mid-1991, output from India’s cement factories has risen steadily. Cement is produced in more than a hundred large plants, each with capacities of more than 0.2 Mt/yr, managed by over fifty cement companies with an installed capacity of almost 77 Mt/yr, as well numerous mini cement plants. During the year 1998-99, as much as 89% limestone was required by the cement industry.